CONTACT US                                                                                                                           

You may contact us at the following:  

SMART Family Literacy

P. O. Box 2445

Galveston, TX 77553 

or 

by e-mail at smartfamilyliteracy@gmail.com.                                                                 

History of SMART Family Literacy

SMART is an original instructional approach used by the SMART Family Literacy Project. SMART was created by Elizabeth Turner in 1999 to help her son, Andrew, who had lost interest in reading.  SMART Parties turned reading into a fun and social experience. Andrew, who has Down’s syndrome, invited many friends and their families to the SMART Parties and his love of reading was renewed. 

The love of reading was also contagious and the parties gradually grew from a few friends with books and popcorn to much larger parties with many people enjoying balloons, mystery boxes, science, and math experiments.  They read aloud with karaoke machines and acted out stories while using simple props (reader's theatre).  Hundreds of people attended the SMART Parties in the Turner home over several years.  Parents noticed the benefits for their children and kept the parties going.

Since SMART Family Literacy became a nonprofit charitable organization, leaving a single neighborhood, and branching out to schools and community centers in 2004, thousands of children and their families have enjoyed reading the books given to them through the hands of caring SMART Volunteers. The project has friends in Texas, El Salvador, South Africa and India. Andrew, now an adult, is a volunteer with the project and has personally read to children and given hundreds of books.